Struggles continue for Trojans as Lafayette emerges victorious

New Kent’s J.J. Jacobs (4) plots a course to the basket as Lafayette’s Jack Nice (5) analyzes the play.

Robb Johnson photo

New Kent’s basketball season has been either hot or cold for the 2018-19 season. On Friday night, the Trojans’ performance dipped below freezing.

A letdown coupled with 22 turnovers, New Kent fell to the visiting Lafayette Rams 59-47 on a night that celebrated the first inductees of New Kent High School’s Hall of fame.

Lafayette’s poor shooting kept the hosts in the contest early on as the Trojans held a 10-6 lead with two minutes to play in the first. However, Lafayette’s Will Darling lay-in along with Tyler Neville’s putback knotted the score at 10 apiece. Tack on a 14-5 run in the second quarter provided a comfortable lead for the visitors.

With momentum on their side, Lafayette’s monumental shift continued as Dimonte Lett’s one-handed jam pumped up the visitors. That momentum pushed the advantage to 19 (41-22) for the visitors as New Kent went into the locker room at the intermission break.

The Trojans pitched together one last effort to get into the game. New Kent began pressing Lafayette and diving for every ball. The result sparked an 8-1 run by the guests and eventually cut the margin back to 10 points (42-32).

But energy exerted in the press by the hosts tired them out during the process of the comeback. The result of that was a response by Lafayette with a 9-0 run, adding enough of a cushion for the visitors to walk out of New Kent’s gymnasium victorious.

After the contest, New Kent head coach Ronnie Cox was visually upset at the effort in the contest.

“We had rushed shots tonight and we threw the ball away tonight in that third quarter,” he said. “We made a run by going small and making steals to get back in the game.

“The problem is we can’t full court press for too long along with taking the big guys out of the game,” Cox continued. “That leaves us vulnerable to rebounding and things like that.

“We may have to incorporate the press earlier to give the team a spark and it’s something that we might have to think about,” the coach concluded.

Mitch Morse’s 12 points led New Kent, now 2-4, in the scoring column. Robb Kinder added seven points, Jalen Banks and J.J. Jacobs both scored six, Jared McCaughan and Ethan Marchant tossed in five, Dean Powell contributed four, and KeSean Taliaferro chipped in with two.